LinkedIn Has Acquired Real-Time Search Startup IndexTank

Professional social network LinkedIn has acquired IndexTank, a company that provides search technology for other websites and Web services.This acquisition will help improve LinkedIn’s internal search technology.IndexTank provides a range of custom search options for companies to integrate into their website without having to host the search software themselves.

IndexTank includes a full-text search API that offers real-time search results and a custom sorting algorithm to give companies more control over what search results are displayed -for instance, companies can allow users to restrict search results to a geographic region.

IndexTank will remain open for the next 6 months and some of the main components of its technology will become open source to make the switch to another search provider a little easier if you are an IndexTank customer.IndexTank is not charging customers during the transition period, while your data will be available to download from IndexTank.

This is the second acquisition LinkedIn has made in the space of a week, following on from a previous deal for Connected. Last week, the company added company status updates, which allows you to see the latest news from companies you are following.IndexTank has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from K9 Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Patagonia Ventures, Michael Dearing and Steve Anderson.